A New Jersey man was found guilty on all counts Friday for shooting a man dead in front of his horrified wife during a botched mall carjacking three years ago, according to reports.
Jurors took more than two days to convict Basim Henry on murder, felony murder, carjacking and other related charges in the death of attorney Dustin Friedland at Short Hills Mall.
Henry, 36, who served as the getaway driver and was charged along with three other men, faces up to life in prison.
Friedland’s widow, Jamie, tearfully testified earlier this month that the couple had taken his dad’s Range Rover to go shopping at the upscale Essex County mall Dec. 15, 2013. The two just had dinner to celebrate their wedding anniversary and the new condo they’d just purchased.
Jamie waited inside the SUV for her husband but when she turned around, she saw him struggling with two men in the parking deck.
She watched as Friedland, an attorney from Hoboken, was shot in the head. Jamie was ordered out of the car.
“I saw the taller man who was beside the driver’s side door. I saw him put the gun to Dustin’s head,” Jamie tearfully testified, imitating the sound of gunshots and glass breaking, NJ.com reported.
“I knew, I just knew when I turned around what I was going to see,” Jamie said on the stand, fighting back tears. “I saw Dustin lying in a pool of blood.”
Friedland was dying as his wife frantically called 911 — while the goons peeled off from the parking deck in the Range Rover.
The heartbroken woman recalled watching her husband die on the pavement.
“I leaned down … on the floor, covered in his blood and he was covered in his blood,” she said. “I’m screaming, ‘Stay with me, stay with me.’”
Friedland died at a hospital. The vehicle was later recovered in Newark.
Henry was the first of four men tried in Friedland’s murder.
The other three, Kevin Roberts, Hanif Thompson and Karif Ford, will be tried at a later date.
Henry’s lawyer Michael Rubas told jurors the South Orange man wasn’t out for murder that night but didn’t deny his role in the carjacking, NorthJersey.com reported.
“Mr. Henry went there to steal a car,” Rubas said. “He did not go there to kill anyone. You cannot hold Mr. Henry liable for the acts of Mr. Thompson. His day will come.”
But prosecutors insisted he was guilty of Friedland’s death, whether or not he pulled the trigger.
Henry has a prior robbery conviction and was on probation at the time of the murder.
In an interview with cops shortly after his arrest, he said the men had gone to the mall because “they just wanted a truck,” according to NJ.com.
“This [expletive] wasn’t supposed to happen,” Henry told police.